Lola and I are out on the front porch in the front sun, far warmer here outside than we were inside our embarrassingly cold house. Lola gets nearly everyone that walks past on the sidewalk to pet her and I just ate my breakfast and so we are

Maybe these men at the baseball game were too, there stage lit in front of thousands of fans

How long did it take to get everything ready so that these two could get their picture taken? And how long to clean everything up after the big event was over?

Kit and Jacqueline and I made a party tunnel for their birthdays--quickly, in the late afternoon before the sun went--with tape, tarps, and hoop house pipes.

Then, when people came inside to get out of the rain the next night, it got so much better and bigger. I think it was better than the baseball game

Or the other direction (a space that I notice because something's missing), here's where my bike wasn't after it was stolen

And here's where I built a table for a friend after we moved it over,

And before that, when it was there and finished:

And before that, when it was there and unfinished:

In New Paltz on Lenape Lane (where there's soon going to be much more traffic) there was a lamed grasshopper that was nearly dead

and then ten steps farther another grasshopper that was smashed (it might as well be the same one though, I could have just smashed it with my shoe).

+++

I found this tree on our walk.

What struck me was that somebody wanted it to be this way. They spent time to rip off all the boughs except for a very few needles (I think it was ripping not cutting.. the ends of all the branches are rough and splintered, not cleanly sliced). Not a little work! Why? And then they were done with it and left it by the trash. Why?

And then a few days later

it was twenty feet away in the bushes. I assume the trash crew didn't think it was an appropriate thing to put in with the rest of the garbage.

Or at West Lake, this defaced poster explaining lake catfish

First, some interested person had to want to explain the fish in the reservoir and so they painted this scrap of plywood white and nailed it to the tree and then mightily stapled this impersonal and colorful info sheet up on it. And then another person (presumably) didn't want it to be there and half-heartedly ripped the lower corner away, just enough to get rid of the explanatory text at the bottom and to cut the bullhead carp into three. What mood were they in when they ripped it away, and why stop with the job half done?

Chicken steak is off the menu, but a little corner of duct tape is all that they were willing to (or needed to) spend to make this revision clear

In Costco, two air conditioners were leaking in the refrigerated produce room, and these two brand new red trash cans were catching about 80 percent of the water.

And earlier, Dave was winding electromagnets (or something) and needed all of these tools (and many outside the frame) to do that. Different projects are so different.

Driving home I got stuck behind this truck carrying a cargo container. One of the little running lights on the passenger side was flailing on its wire in the truck's own wind, but still lit up.

I gave a sharpening lesson at a sushi restaurant in town (Miya's) with the chefs: Xavier, Luis, Memo, and a fourth whose name I never caught. A wonderful hour out of the rain.

and they made me this crab/ curry/ quail egg bite (among many many other incredible things to eat). The members of the Lai family are aggressively generous and I never feel so royal as when I sharpen for them.

Still while it was raining: barely lit inside a giant old army armory building

and back in the library on a different overcast day (same light though)

Here's the trailer in a new unlikely place, much smaller.

I'm going to set it up next weekend (Columbus Day weekend) outside "The Armory," (the big dimly-lit building) at 290 Goffe St. as part of an annual show run by a New Haven group called Artspace. I'll be there 12-6 on both days.

The next weekend I'm going to live out of it on the Yale campus, in front of the big library. That's the 16th through 18th. I got approval from the fire marshal to use my propane stove to cook meals (this is ludicrous!), so if you come at a meal time I'll have eggs or a drink or something to share. I'd be honored if anyone wanted to visit for either weekend.

Less rain on each of the successive lower level

The stairs as I was leaving home/ the house in New Paltz again. (why does "home" feel like it's supposed to be singular to me? Like labeling my (one) best friend .. It would be better to have more than one)